John Kitzhaber has decreed that "Oregon has an expensive and unworkable system that fails to meet basic standards of justice."

He has stopped the December execution of Gary Haugen because these deeply held moral convictions demand that he can not "be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any
longer."

And I don't doubt the passion of his convictions.

I just don't understand why Kitzhaber waited until he was firmly and comfortably in office before he elected to share those convictions with us.

The governor and I disagree on the death penalty. Reasonable people do. I don't doubt his sincerity or his complete dismay that he allowed two executions to go forward in the mid-1990s.

It's the timing of this come-to-Jesus proclamation that I question.

Kitzhaber does not sound like a guy who arrived easily at this philosophical stand ... or recently. As he announced Haugen's reprieve Tuesday, he noted that he has regretted upholding the will of the people, and allowing the executions of Douglas Franklin Wright and Harry Charles Moore to go forward, for the last 15 years.

Why, then, did he wait until now to share?

Did the question of his views on the death penalty simply get lost while Kitzhaber and Chris Dudley were dodging debate opportunities during the 2010 campaign?

"In the years since those executions, many judges, district attorneys, legislators, death penalty proponents and opponents, and victims and their families have agreed that Oregon's system is broken," Kitzhaber said in his prepared statement. "But we have done nothing. We have avoided the question."

And candidate Kitzhaber was seemingly content to avoid a serious debate about the issue during those contentious months when his resolute views on the death penalty might have had a huge impact on the election.

Kitzhaber believes the death penalty is "a perversion of justice." A great many Oregonians don't. And I'm sure most of them join me in asking why we weren't allowed to express our opinion on the issue when we cast our votes one year ago.

Update: Early Wednesday morning, Tim Raphael in the governor's office emailed me Kitzhaber's response to a question about the death penalty that he was asked by the League of Women Voters in April 2010. You make the call on whether the governor's response predicts what unfolded this week:

"I’m
personally opposed to the death penalty. When I was Governor I also
took an oath to uphold the Oregon laws and the Oregon Constitution. And
I did allow two individuals to go to their death in this State. And
nobody who has not sat in that chair and made that decision can – I
think -- fully appreciate how difficult that is. And I don’t ever want
to have to do that again but this is an issue we need to think about
very thoughtfully in this State. About whether we want to continue a
death penalty or whether we want to move to true life lifetime
sentences without parole. It is an issue I tell you can’t just be
answered with a quick political slogan and there are deep moral issues
involved on both sides."